The Pen (Al-Qalam)
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Noon. I swear by the pen and what the angels write, 1 Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed. 2 And indeed, for you is a reward uninterrupted. 3 For you are truly of a sublime character. 4 And thou wilt see and they will see 5 which of you is the demented. 6 Indeed, your Lord knows very well those who strayed from His Path, and those who are guided. 7 Do not, then, yield to those who reject the Truth, decrying it as false; 8 Fain would they that thou shouldst be pliant, so that they will be pliant. 9 And obey not everyone who swears much, and is considered worthless, 10 [or to] the slanderer that goes about with defaming tales, 11 Forbidder of good, outstepping the limits, sinful, 12 Foul mouthed, and in addition to all this, of improper lineage. 13 (He was so) because he had wealth and children. 14 When you recite Our revelations to him, he says: "These are fables of long ago." 15 We will brand him on the nose. 16 [As for such sinners,] behold, We [but] try them as We tried the owners of a certain garden who vowed that they would surely harvest its fruit on the morrow, 17 And they made not the exception. 18 Wherefore an encircling visitation visited it even as they slept on. 19 And in the morning it was as if plucked. 20 In the morning they called out to one another, 21 "Go early to your tilth if you want to harvest the fruit!" 22 So they went off, whispering to one another, 23 "Be sure to stop any poor person from entering the orchard today." 24 And they went out betimes determined in purpose. 25 But when they saw the (garden), they said: "We have surely lost our way: 26 Rather, we have been deprived." 27 Said the most right-minded among them: "Did I not tell you, 'Will you not extol God's limitless glory?'" 28 They said: "Glory to Our Lord! Verily, we have been Zalimun (wrong-doers, etc.)." 29 Then some of them drew near unto others, self-reproaching. 30 They said, "Alas for us, our behaviour was beyond the pale. 31 It may be that our Lord will give us better than it in exchange. To our Lord we humbly turn' 32 Such is the chastisement; and the chastisement of the Hereafter is assuredly even greater, if only they knew. 33